By the Embers Dies the Fire Read online

  “Are you sure?” He sounded near tears again. “Is this what you really wanted?”

  This time, tears of joy.

  “Yeah. I’m sure. Ain was first. That makes you rightfully—”

  He cupped her face in his hands. “Elain, you know we don’t care who is—”

  “But I do.” She reached up and cupped his face, too, her thumbs brushing away the tears on his cheeks. “I don’t know how many kids we’ll finally have. But I want at least one from each of you. I want this.”

  He looked down at her stomach and placed his hands there. “Mine?”

  She covered his hands with hers. “Yours. Because I love you. I love all three of you. And I don’t want to waste any time with you guys. If I’m a shifter, that means I have a long life, right? We can have our babies now, since we already have them, several of them close in age. Then we can take a break and raise them and decide if we want more.”

  His gaze finally rose to meet hers. “What are the chances that it’s…” He didn’t finish.

  He didn’t have to.

  She squeezed his hands, not dropping his gaze. “One hundred percent,” she gently said. “Another reason I wanted to do this tonight. I sensed he was close by in the Ether, and I didn’t want to risk waiting and him moving on somewhere else.”

  His eyes fell closed as he started sobbing. She held him close, her forehead pressed to his. “He’s back with us, Brod. Souls always come home, that’s what Ryan told me. They always come home. Mercedes was meant to have a good life with us as Ellie. You all said he had it rough. He won’t have it rough this time around. We’ll love him and he won’t know the pain of losing your sisters or any of that other stuff.”

  She sank all the way to the floor with him cradled in her arms, his head pressed against her stomach, his arms around her. “I wanted to take care of him,” he sobbed. “Try to protect him. He was so damned hard to love, even when we were kids. Dad and Mom asked us to keep an eye on him and try to protect him because they knew. They knew he wasn’t…right. I felt so fucking guilty. We never even found his body! What the hell happened to him? What did they do to him?”

  Now she was back in dangerous territory. She gently raked her nails through his hair. “There are some things I don’t want to know. All I need to know is that he’s back and he’s safe and we can love him. It’s not exactly a do-over, but it’s the best I can do.”

  They sat there for several long minutes, his ear pressed against her stomach. She didn’t make him move, knowing that this was a crucial tipping point for him and something that could either jumpstart his recovery or set him back and double her work.

  “I love you,” he whispered. “I love you so damn much, babe.”

  “You have to let me do my job, though.”

  “I know.” He finally sniffled and sat up, wiping at his face.

  She stood and held her hands out to him. “Let’s go get that shower.”

  But they didn’t end up in the shower. They ended up, Brodey finally naked, in the middle of their bed, Brodey edicting her into shifting as he shifted with her and fucked her hard and fast and into another glorious series of orgasms with him knotting inside her.

  She relished it, his primal, joyful energy finally breaking through the dark shell around his soul.

  If he wanted to fuck all night, she’d gladly do it.

  Just to feel her Brodey finally making his way back through the dark forest of his soul to her.

  Nearly an hour later they made it into the shower, Brodey taking the soap and washcloth from her and going over every inch of her flesh with his lips and then washing her, worshipping her body, refusing to let her do anything but be loved by him.

  When he was toweling her dry, he wrapped his arms around her from behind, the force of his love nearly bowling her over mentally. “How about I order us a pizza and we curl up in bed with those journals and I’ll read you anything you want me to?” he asked.

  “If you want to, but I don’t mind cooking.”

  He turned her to face him, the faintest hint of a smirk quirking his lips. “I’d rather spend it with my head against your tummy, listening to your heart beat and thinking about hearing our son’s heartbeat in a few months.” He let out a sigh, but it sounded content. “We promised you we wouldn’t keep you barefoot and pregnant.”

  “This was my choice,” she said. “Remember that, and don’t feel guilty.”

  “I know.” He raised her right wrist to his lips and kissed it, feathering his lips over her flesh. “Thank you.”

  “I love you. All three of you. I want this for us.” She played with the paw print tag on his necklace. “I want to enjoy life as much as I can. Some of it won’t be anything close to normal, but I want to control what I can of it.”

  “Okay. Thank you.”

  “You don’t have to thank me. This is our baby.”

  He kissed her. “I do have to thank you, and tell you I love you, because if anything ever happens, I want those two phrases to be the last things I ever said to you so I know nothing is left unsaid between us.”

  “I love you, too, sweetie. And thank you for not giving up. For not giving up on me, for not giving up convincing Ain I was your One, and for not giving up after Kimberlie and Yellowstone with Lina that time.”

  He let out a deep breath. “I’ll try not to be clingy, but please give me some clingy days, schedule them in or something, to just be your mate and be the father of your baby, okay? So I can get it out of my system?”

  She smiled. “Deal. We will absolutely schedule those for you.”

  He dropped to his knees in front of her and wrapped his arms around her, kissing her belly. “No Ancient Aliens this time around, dude.”

  She snickered. “I don’t think that’s going to be a worry. He’s going to be a normal, healthy baby boy.”

  “Normal? Yeah, with dragons and a wolfote and wolves and whatever the hell you’d call Kitty and Wally’s babies for cousins. Real normal.”

  * * * *

  Brodey had gone out to Cail’s office to use his computer there to put in an online order for the pizza. Elain had pulled on a robe, and while looking through the sliders in the bedroom, had spotted someone standing by the pool.

  She stepped out onto the lanai. “Hey, Ryan.”

  He was dressed in his usual, the khaki slacks, loafers, and a button-up Oxford shirt with his sleeves rolled up above his wrists. “Hello, Elain. Nice evening.”

  “Cut to the chase,” she lightly said. She’d actually expected a visit from him, maybe not this soon, but by sometime tomorrow.

  He turned, that smile on his face. “You have a lot of latitude,” he finally said, “but I shall warn you now, as I did before, to please take care.”

  “This was a special case.”

  “I know, hence why I went to bat for you, as it were, and did a little occluding of my own in some ways on my end. A temporary barrier around your residence to ensure…privacy. There are certain attentions I do not wish focused too closely upon you or your…talents.”

  “Why not?”

  “It will simplify all of our lives in the long run. Congratulations, by the way.”

  “Thank you.” She rested her hands on her tummy. “Did I do the right thing?”

  He snorted. “You ask me that now?”

  “You know what I mean.”

  He shrugged. “In the grand scheme of things, you have achieved a karmic null state, I would think, in terms of this. But that is not exactly my bailiwick.”

  “He would have killed the babies,” she whispered. “I couldn’t have helped him in this life. He was a rogue. Too far gone, saw me as an enemy.”

  It was the mantra she’d retreated to, to keep herself able to sleep at night.

  “I know,” he said. “It was not an easy decision for you, and I know you didn’t make it lightly. And the overarching mission of The Firm is to protect innocents. Those babies are innocents. Technically, the cockatrice threat originated off-Ear
th, bringing it into my jurisdiction. And you were not wrong in what you did. I, for one, commend you for being so selfless, knowing the personal pain it would cause you.”

  She reached out and touched his arm. “Thank you. For your help.”

  “Eh, let’s not make a habit of that, shall we?” He smiled. “Lacey’s backyard is only so large.” He disappeared.

  She heard Brodey open the sliders. “Babe?”

  She turned. “Sorry. Pizza ordered?”

  “Was that Ryan Ausar?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Something wrong?”

  She walked over to him and kissed him. “No. Not right now. He was just checking in to make sure we’re okay.”

  She felt Brodey practically bristling. “Why?”

  Laying a hand on his cheek, she said, “Because he was concerned about us and how we’re doing. He’s not an asshole. He has a heart and a conscience. He knows we… He feels guilty that I couldn’t get hold of him in time.”

  Brodey immediately relaxed. “Ah.” His voice dropped. “That’s kind of nice of him.”

  “He’s a friend, not a threat. And he has zero romantic interest in any of the three of us in the Triad.”

  A soft snort escaped him. “That’s spooky, babe.”

  She hugged him. “Hey, remember my reaction when Lina first showed up and I met her? I can feel that in you.” She stared up into his green eyes. “Think of him sort of like a cousin.”

  After the pizza arrived, they spent the evening exactly like Brodey had wanted—together in bed, snuggled with his head on her tummy, and him reading to her from his journals and melting her heart with his Scottish accent.

  Absolute perfection. Brodey’s soul, while still grieving, had finally turned the corner. He was past the danger period now, past the risk of the darkness taking over.

  Balance restored.

  He made slow, languid love to her one last time before they fell asleep, and that was with her safely tucked against him, his hand resting on her tummy, her fingers curled around his.

  Elain opened her eyes in Baba Yaga’s kitchen.

  Shit.

  She walked over to the counter and sat. “Will this take long?”

  Baba Yaga sadly smiled. “No. Congratulations.”

  “You talk to Ryan?”

  “I sensed it. Not all my powers are gone.”

  “But he said he put up a barrier.”

  She shrugged. “I read the Ether before. It didn’t take a genius.”

  “I’m surprised he works with you so…willingly.”

  “We actually get along quite well, all things considered.”

  “Not sure I’d be so good about it if I were him. No offense.”

  She frowned. “If you were him? What are you talking about? Why would he have a problem working with me?”

  “I mean, I know a lot of time has passed, and you’re older than him, but still.”

  Baba Yaga arched an eyebrow at her. “I think that I am not following your train of thought. Would you mind clarifying?”

  “He gave you an amulet and helped out with…stuff. In Maine.” Elain realized she was currently wearing a fuzzy pink robe she didn’t own in real life. “Not sure I’d be so generous to my father’s mistress.”

  Baba Yaga blinked, her eyes widening. “His whut?”

  Elain crossed her arms over her chest. “Oh, please. You heard me.”

  Elain didn’t recognize the sound at first, coming from that woman. It was a burp of mirth that expanded into a bubble of laughter, and from there became rolling belly laughs that had the former Immortal doubled over and leaning against her counter.

  “What is so damned funny?” Elain asked.

  It took the other woman, in her matron form, a few moments to compose herself. “Hades wasn’t my lover, you silly nit,” she finally said. “I’m his illegitimate daughter. Ryan is my half-brother. All three of us were fathered by Hades, but Gigi and Callie don’t know that yet. So don’t tell them.”

  It took Elain a moment to process that as the former Immortal stood there giggling and snorting.

  “Well, what was all that bullshit in the yard that night about catching Hades’ eye and your assignment being fair compensation for abandoning you when he met his wife?”

  “Yes, because he abandoned me and my younger brother and our mother died, leaving us to be raised by our Clan while he had a whole other family going. He put me in this role as part of my birthright out of guilt for being an absentee father, because he didn’t give me an official role in The Firm. All three of us.”

  Baba Yaga took a deep breath and wiped at her eyes as another chuckle escaped her. “That’s why we were Immortal, even though we were mortal-born. Because all three of us are half archdemons. Ryan is full-blooded, because his mother is Persephone. Callie and Gigi and I each had different mothers. The Triad before us, they were all archdemons assigned to the role and they were tired of doing it. Since most of the threats at that point were of Earthly origin, Hades and the other Elders thought it safe to transition the Triad, and we no longer fell under the purview of The Firm.”

  “Son of a bitch.” Elain felt like an idiot. “That’s why you can use the amulet—”

  “Because I’m half archdemon, yes.” She smiled as she shook her head. “Which is how I was able to manipulate Bertholde’s, Sean’s, and Colm’s souls into BettLynn and the Beasts despite the amount of time that had passed. I was able to put them on hold in the Ether, so to speak. I had ‘connections.’” She used air quotes. “I asked dear ole Daddy for a favor, and all things considered, he couldn’t refuse me. Especially considering how dear a friend Bertholde was to me and the role she played throughout the years.”

  Elain thought about what little she knew regarding Ryan and his kind. “And that’s why you never took another mate after all this time.”

  Baba Yaga’s mirth faded and she suddenly found her cuticles very interesting. “Yes. Zachary was my soul mate.”

  Chapter Eighteen

  The next morning, Elain stood in the bathroom after her shower, wearing nothing but her bathrobe. She was brushing her teeth when Brodey walked in and hugged her from behind.

  The smile on his face told her what she needed to know.

  Mission accomplished.

  A knock on the door caught their attention. Cail. “Hey.”

  Brodey snuggled tighter against her. “Mine.” But his tone was teasing, joking, not challenging.

  “Feeling better?” Cail asked.

  “Yeah.” Brodey pressed another kiss against her neck, then she realized he was sniffing. “Hey…”

  “What?”

  “You’re…” More sniffing. “You’re still fertile?”

  “Um, thanks?”

  “But you’re pregnant.”

  That got Cail’s attention. “She’s what?”

  Brodey stared into her eyes. “That’s got to mean a second egg.”

  “Huh?”

  Now Cail and Brod were talking around her as if she wasn’t there. “How do you know she’s pregnant?” Cail asked.

  “Long story, but—”

  Next thing Elain knew, she was bent over the bathroom counter, Cail behind her and sliding his cock inside her.

  She let out a squeal. “What the—”

  “Mate,” Brodey growled in a tone that would have made her wet and ready even without the edict. “Get ready for him.”

  Looking like a rabid dog with toothpaste around her mouth, she couldn’t help but drop the toothbrush in the sink and hold on tight as Cail went to town and her body responded. Whimpering with need, she looked up in the mirror. Cail’s brown gaze, intense, fierce, held hers while Brodey wore a sexy, sneaky smile as he nibbled on her ear.

  “You’re already pregnant with my baby,” Brodey rumbled in her ear. “Yet you’re still fertile. I told you, I can smell it. You have two eggs in there and apparently I only claimed one.” He nipped her earlobe. “Twins, baby.”

  Barely holding on
to her sanity because of the passion coursing through her, Elain looked for the Ether and found it spinning around them.

  The first familiar-looking shape she saw, she snagged it and hastily shut the pathway to the Ether before Cail’s fingers dug into her hips and he barked out an edict. “Mate, come for me now!”

  She did, Cail following close behind. And just then, Ain walked in. “Mom’s going to bring the babies—what the—”

  Elain felt the connection inside her made, her mind mushy from the really good edict-driven orgasm, but like it or not…

  She was going to have twins.

  Cail was no sooner out of the way than Brodey stepped behind her, quickly working her up and over the edge with another edict for her to come before he fucked her silly and emptied himself inside her.

  That apparently was enough inspiration for the Prime, who took a turn, also edicting her into an orgasm before he came. By the time they finished with her, she held on to the counter, trembling.

  “Can I please rinse the damn toothpaste out of my mouth?”

  Cail grabbed her and kissed her, grinning, getting toothpaste all over him, too. “Sure, now you can.”

  Brodey and Cail high-fived over the top of her when she leaned over to do it.

  “Not that I’m complaining,” Ain said, “but can someone clue me in?”

  “Twins!” Cail and Brodey both exclaimed.

  “What?”

  Elain stood up and turned. Now she needed another shower, because she had their cum running down her legs. She pointed at Brodey and Cail. “They’ve double-tapped me.”

  Ain arched an eyebrow at her.

  “I apparently ovulated two eggs this month. Brodey claimed one last night. He sensed I still had a vacancy, and Cail had perfect timing.”

  Ain’s eyes widened. “You’re pregnant?”

  Cail rinsed the toothpaste off his face. “Twins, Prime. One of each flavor.”

  Ain held both hands up and got high-fives from Brodey and Cail. Together, the three of them threw their heads back and howled with joy.

  * * * *

  Elain sat on the lanai, her iPad in her lap as she went through it, trying to figure out Brighton’s copy of the Grimoire Lilitu. Kael and Zack had scanned the physical copy for her in less than a day, getting it back to her so she could go through it.